While at TCD he met his future wife Evelyn; they married in 1979 and have a daughter, Julie, a lecturer at St Mary s University College in Belfast.
At TCD he also became involved in the university Christian Union, which he credits for giving his faith firmer foundations. No doubt it also sharpened the debating skills which proved so useful in his later involvement in public life.
A career in the civil service beckoned but after seven wonderful years he moved to England and took up a post with the evangelical organisation Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship.
In 1980 he returned to Northern Ireland to study theology and to train for the Presbyterian ministry at Union College in Belfast.